The youngest of five children growing up in a little mountain town in Abruzzo Italy, Gentile was drawn to art as a young child as a method for expressing his creativity and finding comfort during his war-torn youth. John first developed his artistic skills by plucking pieces of charcoal out of the fireplace in his two-room house to draw the beautiful nature and scenic landscapes in his homeland. As he grew older, neighbors noticed his remarkable skill and fostered his artistic talent by buying his art supplies.

 

Gentile studied at the Istituto Statale D’Arte in Sulmona, Italy before attending the prestigious Institute of Fine Art in Florence, Italy. He moved to the States in the ‘60s, buying a house on a lake with his wife where he built a studio and has been painting ever since.

 

Gentile’s carefully composed subjects peek through screens of saturated color to offer the viewer an enigmatic interpretation of reality. His unique compositions and brilliant use of contour lines create a wonderful dynamism — an abstract flatness combined with the mystery and delicate silhouettes of his spheres and lines. In his paintings, what is shown is just as important as what is obscured, and when one steps back, all is revealed.

 

Gentile has been honored by numerous museums including the National Museum of Monte Carlo, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sulmona, Italy, the Duxbury Museum, MA, and the Bentley College Art Museum, MA, among others. His artworks are held in prestigious private collections in Europe, South America, and North America.